The Gaucho Record
UC Santa Barbara enters its game at San Diego State with an overall record of 2-5. The Gauchos recorded their second win of the season on Monday night, 72-65 over Concordia University of Portland. After opening the season at 0-4, Santa Barbara has won two of its last three games, defeating Westmont College and losing a narrow one (68-64) to Pepperdine in addition to the win over Concordia.

The Last Game
Playing without starting forward Juliano Jordani (10.3 points and 7.0 rebounds per game), who sat out with a sprained right ankle, the Gauchos defeated Concordia University of Portland, an NAIA program, by a score of 72-65. UCSB trailed by seven points early in the first half, but ultimately took a six-point halftime lead. The Gauchos built their lead to 14 points in the second half, but a continued shooting drought allowed the Cavaliers back into the game late. UCSB was led by Erick Ashe, who, despite making only 4-of-18 shots from the field, had 19 points. Forward Adama Ndiaye had a double-double, going for 12 points and a career-high 16 rebounds. It was Ndiaye's second double-double in the last three games.

What About Bob?Bob Williams is in his second season as head coach of the Gauchos. Last year he guided the Gauchos to a 15-13 overall record and an outstanding 12-4 mark in Big West play. After guiding the squad to the league's Western Division Championship, Williams was selected Big West Coach of the Year and National Association of Basketball Coaches District 15 Coach of the Year. After seven games this season, Williams' Gaucho record is now 17-18 and his overall record as a college coach is 205-117. His teams have won either a league, division or National Championship in five straight seasons.

The Opponents
UC Santa Barbara and San Diego State have not played since 1986 when the Gauchos recorded a 87-73 win. None of the players who played in that game will play in this year's matchup. As for BYU, the Gauchos have played them only twice and the Cougars have won both games. UCSB and BYU have not played since 1979.

The Gauchos On The Road
UCSB is winless away from home this season. After opening the year at home, the Gauchos played three in a row on the road, losing at San Jose State, USF and USC. Last season, UCSB went 6-6 in true road games and 7-7 in all games away from the Thunderdome. After opening at 0-4, they went 6-2 in true road games.

The Gauchos Rebound
With their 55-35 advantage on the boards in the win over Concordia, the Gauchos have now passed their opponents in the rebounding category. UCSB is averaging 40.1 rebounds per game and their opponents are at 38.1 per game, an advantage of 2.0 per game for the Gauchos. After being outrebounded in each of its first three games, the UCSB has outrebounded four straight opponents. In the first three contests, opponents outrebounded the Gauchos by an average of 6.3 boards per game and in the last four games, UCSB has outrebounded its opponents by an average of 8.3 per game.

Still A Percentage Problem
Even in victory, Santa Barbara is having trouble shooting the ball. In fact, their shooting problems almost cost them all of a 14-point second half lead on Monday. For the game, the Gauchos shot 35.4%, making only 23-of-65 shots. In seven games this season, UCSB has shot 37.7% or worse six times. The only time they made better than 37.7% was in a win over Westmont when they hit exactly 50.0%. In addition, the Gauchos have been outshot in all but two games, the Westmont game and the season-opener against Stanford. On the bright side, UCSB opponents are having some troubles shooting the ball as well, hitting only 40.6% for the campaign. In the last three games, UCSB's opposition has made 70-of-200 shots, a meager 35.0% from the field.

Ndiaye Makes His Mark
Junior forward Adama Ndiaye has started to emerge in the last three games. For the first time in his career, Ndiaye has scored in double-figures in three straight games and, more importantly, he has started to produce the type of rebound numbers that the Gauchos need from him. In the last three contests, Ndiaye has averaged 12.0 points and 11.0 rebounds per game while making 15-of-22 shots from the floor, a solid 68.2%. The 6-foot-8 native of Dakar, Senegal has had a pair of double-doubles this year, both in the last three games. In Monday's win over Concordia, he had 12 points and a career-high 16 rebounds. Of his 16 boards, ten came at the offensive end, the second highest single game total in school history. With the 16 boards, Ndiaye has claimed the team-lead in rebounding at 8.1 per game, more than a full rebound per game better than Juliano Jordani. Ndiaye has produced seven or more rebounds in four straight games and in five of the seven contests this season. Finally, on the season he has come up with 30 offensive rebounds as compared to his total of 27 defensive boards.

A Hulluva Discovery
Freshman swingman Mark Hull is off to a good start in his career and his last name makes for some pretty easy headlines. While he had his streak of four consecutive double-digit scoring efforts snapped against Concordia, he remains UCSB's leading scorer. The 6-foot-6 product of Glendale's Hoover High School scored a career-high 19 points and had a career-high-tying seven rebounds in last week's loss to Pepperdine. He enters the game at San Diego State with a team-leading average of 11.1 points per game. He is the lone Gaucho to have scored in double-figures in five of seven games this season. In addition, in the last three games he has made 5-of-10 shots from three-point range, 50.0%. Finally, while Hull has only come up with eight assists on the season, seven of them have come in the last three contests.

Jordani Heats Up And Sits Down
There is good news and bad news from the Juliano Jordani front. First, the good news. After a slow offensive start (nine points and 1-for-11 shooting in the first two games), Jordani has started to heat up offensively. In the last four contests, the 6-foot-7 Brazilian has scored 53 points (13.3 per game), made 15-of-39 shots (38.5%) overall and 10-of-21 shots from three-point range, an outstanding 47.6%. He is one of three Gauchos averaging ten or more points at 10.3 per game. Jordani is second on the team in rebounding at 7.0 per game and he has rebounded 7.8 rebounds per game in the last four. Now that we have that out of the way, we must report the bad news. Jordani has suffered a bad sprain of the right ankle and missed Monday's win over Concordia. He is also expected to miss the game at San Diego State and his prospects for the game against BYU are still up in the air.

The Reward: A Little Of This, A Little Of That
Freshman guard B.J. Ward, making his first start of the season in the absence of Juliano Jordani, had one of his better all-around games in the win over Concordia. Ward scored six points, making only 2-of-8 shots, but he set career-highs for assists (five), rebounds (eight) and minutes played (28). If, as expected, Jordani does not play at San Diego State, Ward will probably remain in the starting lineup. He is now averaging 5.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game.

These Turnovers Taste Lousy
With 17 turnovers in the win over Concordia, UCSB has now produced 122 turnovers in only seven games, an average of 17.4 per game. Gaucho opponents have turned the ball over 94 times, an average of 13.4 times per game and 4.0 fewer times per game than the Gauchos. UCSB has had fewer turnovers than its opponent only one time this season (at USF) and they have 36 more turnovers than assists. The Gaucho season-high for turnovers is the 31 they had at USC and the season-low is the ten they had against Westmont.

On The Horizon
Following the games against the Mountain West Conference's San Diego State and BYU, the Gauchos will play a pair against the West Coast Conference before opening up Big West play. UCSB will travel to Loyola Marymount on Wednesday, January 5 for a 7:00 p.m. matchup and then they host St. Mary's on Saturday, January 8 at 7:00 p.m. in the Thunderdome. Their final non-conference game.